Blueridge Believer
Puritan Board Professor
God sees through these fig-leaves!
(Thomas Watson, "Body of Divinity")
"My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden
from Me, nor is their sin concealed from My eyes!"
Jeremiah 16:17
If God is a God of infinite knowledge, then see the
folly of hypocrisy. Hypocrites carry it fair with
men--but care not how bad their hearts are; they
live in secret sin. "They say--How can God know?
Does the Most High have knowledge?" "What does
God know? Can He judge through thick darkness?"
"God has forgotten, He hides His face, He will
never see it!"
But, "His understanding is infinite!" He has a window
to look into men's hearts! He has a key to open up the
heart. "Your Father who sees in secret." God sees in
secret. As a merchant enters debts in his book, so God
has His debt-book, in which He enters every sin!
The hypocrite thinks to disguise and juggle with God--but
God will unmask him. "God shall bring every work into
judgment, with every secret thing." "For they have done
outrageous things . . . I know it and am a witness to
it--declares the Lord." Jeremiah 29:23
The hypocrite hopes he shall color over his sin, and
make it look very good. Absalom masks over his
treason with the pretense of a religious vow. Judas
cloaks his covetousness, with the pretense of "charity
to the poor." Jehu makes religion a cloak for his selfish
design. But God sees through these fig-leaves!
He who has an eye to see--will find a hand to punish!
Since God is infinite in knowledge, we should always feel
as under His omniscient eye. "I have set the Lord always
before me." The consideration of God's omniscience would
be preventive of much sin. The eye of man will restrain
from sin; and will not God's eyes much more?
"Will he even assault the queen right here in the palace,
before my very eyes? the king roared." Esther 7:8. Will
we sin when our Judge looks on? Would men speak so
vainly, if they considered God overheard them? What care
would people have of their words, if they remembered that
God heard, and His pen was writing everything down in
heaven? Would they commit immorality, if they believed
God was a spectator of their wickedness, and would punish
them in hell for it? Would they defraud in their dealings,
and use false weights, if they knew God saw them; and
for making their weights lighter--would make their
damnation heavier?
Is God omniscient, and His eye chiefly upon the heart?
Then be sincere--be what you seem! "The Lord does not
look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward
appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Sam. 16:7
Men judge the heart--by the actions.
God judges the actions--by the heart.
(Thomas Watson, "Body of Divinity")
"My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden
from Me, nor is their sin concealed from My eyes!"
Jeremiah 16:17
If God is a God of infinite knowledge, then see the
folly of hypocrisy. Hypocrites carry it fair with
men--but care not how bad their hearts are; they
live in secret sin. "They say--How can God know?
Does the Most High have knowledge?" "What does
God know? Can He judge through thick darkness?"
"God has forgotten, He hides His face, He will
never see it!"
But, "His understanding is infinite!" He has a window
to look into men's hearts! He has a key to open up the
heart. "Your Father who sees in secret." God sees in
secret. As a merchant enters debts in his book, so God
has His debt-book, in which He enters every sin!
The hypocrite thinks to disguise and juggle with God--but
God will unmask him. "God shall bring every work into
judgment, with every secret thing." "For they have done
outrageous things . . . I know it and am a witness to
it--declares the Lord." Jeremiah 29:23
The hypocrite hopes he shall color over his sin, and
make it look very good. Absalom masks over his
treason with the pretense of a religious vow. Judas
cloaks his covetousness, with the pretense of "charity
to the poor." Jehu makes religion a cloak for his selfish
design. But God sees through these fig-leaves!
He who has an eye to see--will find a hand to punish!
Since God is infinite in knowledge, we should always feel
as under His omniscient eye. "I have set the Lord always
before me." The consideration of God's omniscience would
be preventive of much sin. The eye of man will restrain
from sin; and will not God's eyes much more?
"Will he even assault the queen right here in the palace,
before my very eyes? the king roared." Esther 7:8. Will
we sin when our Judge looks on? Would men speak so
vainly, if they considered God overheard them? What care
would people have of their words, if they remembered that
God heard, and His pen was writing everything down in
heaven? Would they commit immorality, if they believed
God was a spectator of their wickedness, and would punish
them in hell for it? Would they defraud in their dealings,
and use false weights, if they knew God saw them; and
for making their weights lighter--would make their
damnation heavier?
Is God omniscient, and His eye chiefly upon the heart?
Then be sincere--be what you seem! "The Lord does not
look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward
appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Sam. 16:7
Men judge the heart--by the actions.
God judges the actions--by the heart.
